Now, by what authority, may I ask, is all this “most certain?” And by authority I do not mean any quotation from previous historians. That I waive, and should not here require it, if either _proof_ or _probability_ were tendered of the _occurrence_. But as none such is vouchsafed--as all is mere _assertion_--and as I can _prove the exact contrary to have been the actual fact_, is not _dogmatism_ too _mild_ a name to apply to the _scribbler_ who _propounds_ such nonsense? And is not _servility_ too _dignified_ an epithet to brand upon the _copyist_, who takes such _ipse dixit_ evidence upon so intricate a proposition as gospel truth? and that too when he must have absolute _demonstration_, and canvas every other statement, emanating from that fraternity, with _the very eye of a Lynceus_! In the first place, then, the name _Damnii_ (to begin with the beginning) is but a monkish Latinisation for _Danaans_; and _these I have established to have been_ an eastern race, totally and universally distinct from Britain, until upon their overthrow in Ireland they fled for shelter to Scotland, whither on their way some straggling parties, reduced and humiliated, took up their residence in the northern parts of England; where, accordingly, to this hour we find evidences of their worship, such as sculptured _crosses_,[480] and other _emblematic devices_, but _never a Round Tower_, their impoverished circumstances not being now adequate to such an expense. The Brigantes, again, is another Latin metamorphosis for the inhabitants of _Breo-cean_, in Spain, where the Phœnicians had fixed a colony, and whence they doubtless had brought some portion with them to work the mines at Cornwall. This _Breo-cean_ the Romans, in conformity with the genius of their language, changed into _Bri_-gantia, which, however, was a very allowable commutation, the letters _c_ and _g_ being always convertible, and _tia_ nothing more than an ordinary termination. Seneca well knew that the _Brigantes_ thus imported were a very different extraction from the native _Britons_. “Illi _Britannos_ ultra noti littora ponti, Et cœruleos _Scuto-Brigantes_ dare Romuleis,” says he, in his satirical invective upon the death of Claudius. Here, you will observe, that the _Britons_ and the _Brigantes_ are _opposed to one another_, and marked out as _distinct_ races. And to specify still further the origin of the Brigantes is the epithet _Scuto_[481] prefixed thereto, from _Scuitte_, the ancient mode of spelling _Scythia_. Those Scoto-Brigantes were the persons who, having been driven from Spain by the conquests of Sesostris, poured in with multitudinous inundation upon the quietude of our _Tuath-de-danaans_, and wrested from them an island which, during their blissful reign, had eclipsed in sanctity even their _former_ Iran.[482]